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Hosts New Zealand secure best overall nation award at Track Cycling World Cup

Hosts New Zealand won the best overall nation award as the International Cycling Union Track Cycling World Cup in Cambridge came to an end today.

New Zealand finished with five golds and two bronze medals from 12 events at the Avantidrome in what was the penultimate World Cup of the season.

It was also a key qualifying contest for both next month’s World Championships in Poland and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Today they picked up bronze in the women’s Madison through Racquel Sheath and Rushlee Buchanan, and in the women’s scratch through Jessie Hodges.

“The event was a significant success as we again showed we can produce world-class events here in Cambridge, which is a tribute to our events team,” acting chief executive of Cycling New Zealand Jacques Landry said.

“On the track the whole team responded to the challenge, not only with success, but with outstanding performances like the men’s team pursuit, who recorded the second fastest time in history.

“We have a largely young team and a new coaching group, and they will grow from this experience.”

Twenty-four-year-old Sheath and the more senior Buchanan - who is 31 - claimed third place in the Madison with 9 points, two clear of Russia and Belarus.

They did finish significantly behind both the Belgium team of Jolien D’Hoore and Lottie Kopecky and the Italians Letizia Paternoster and Maria Giulia Confalonieri, however.

Belgium took the victory and Italy were second with 39 and 27 points respectively.

Hodges, who was racing for the Subway New Zealand Trade Team, finished third behind Italy’s Martina Fidanza and Poland’s Daria Pikulik in the scratch race.

Fidanza took the win with a powerful turn of speed on the last lap.

Among the other events to finish today was the men’s sprint, which was won by Australia’s Nathan Hart.

He beat Poland’s Mateusz Rudyk in two races to take gold, while New Zealand lost out on the chance for another bronze as Ethan Mitchell was beaten by Frenchman Sebastian Vigier in the race for third.

The women’s keirin was won by Hong Kong’s Wai Sze Lee, with second going to Great Britain and third to Ukraine through Katy Marchant and Liubov Basova, while Switzerland won the men’s omnium through Claudio Imhof in what was a very tight race.

He beat Raman Tsishkou from Belarus by just one point, with consistency the key to his victory.

The Swiss finished fourth in the scratch race, third in the tempo and third in the elimination before controlling the points race to end with 113 points.

Italy’s Liam Bertazzo was third with 108 points.

The World Cup circuit now moves to Hong Kong, where the final meeting of the season will take place from this Friday (January 25) until Sunday (January 27).

About the author

Prior to joining insidethegames.biz in June 2018, James worked as a broadcast journalist at Celador Radio in Bristol, where he read the drivetime news across seven stations in the South West of England. He graduated from the University of Exeter in 2016 with a 2:1 in History, before completing a Masters in Broadcast Journalism at Salford University. James’ passion lies in sport. He has a golf handicap of nine, is a qualified windsurfing instructor, regularly plays hockey and tennis and has previously competed in the long jump at a national level. His first trip with insidethegames.biz was to cover IOC Executive Board meetings in Lausanne, while he has since covered the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang.

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Fact of the day

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili was disqualified for weighing in at nearly four pounds above the limit for his weight class of his under-66 kilograms match against an Israeli opponent Ehud Vaks in the first round. It was claimed Miresmaeili had gone on an eating binge to protest the International Olympic Committee's recognition of the state of Israel. Iran does not recognise the state of Israel, and Miresmaeili's actions won praise from high-ranking Iranian officials. Mohammad Khatami, the country's President at the time, was quoted as saying Miresmaili's actions would be "recorded in the history of Iranian glories". He was later awarded $125,000 by the Government - the same amount given to Olympic gold medallists.

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